The Norse God Of Silence

Smash – Season 1 – Episode 1 – Pilot

While it is a pretty good show – better than most (once you get past the first painful ten minutes where everyone is trying too hard) – not very many people will watch it.

NBC and the creators have worked incredibly hard to produce a show no one will care about (outside of the families of the people working on the show).

In interviews, they call this an authentic show about what really happens during the making of a Broadway musical.

There is nothing authentic about it.

From the Earth tone color palette of the apartments and clothes, to the noiseless, clean streets of New York, to the very simple auditioning process, “Smash” is as much about the real Broadway as “Miss Saigon” is about the real Vietnam.

(Vidar knows Broadway – oh, yes.)

But Vidar – Norse God of Silence, Stealth & Revenge – you said it was a pretty good show?

It is.

But it is a fantasy – a dreamland depiction of Broadway – and doomed to fail much like Loki was doomed to fail at Ragnarok. Ha!

The Good:

The Cast – All very able doing what was asked of them – with Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty in star-making performances.

The small scene with Megan Hilty alone in her tiny kitchen talking to her mom on the phone was the best and most realistic moment in the entire episode.

The Songs – They all worked well even though Vidar is completely sick of Marc Shaiman. Is there no other composers available to write shows for Broadway?

However, the best musical moment in the “Pilot” was when Katharine McPhee sang “Beautiful” – not written by Marc Shaiman.

More moments like that and less “show tune” moments might turn “Smash” into a marginal hit – but then, it would be “Glee.”

The Bad:

The Writing – Clunky set-ups, jamming way too much information into the Pilot. The characters are decent though all very vanilla.

Everyone was praising Marilyn Monroe so much one would think the estate of Marilyn Monroe told the producers they couldn’t say anything bad about her. Too much of a love letter – not enough resistance to a corny idea for a musical. Debra Messing’s adoption scenario is too forced and unbelievable. Angelica Huston’s divorce proceedings is too forced and unbelievable. etc. etc. etc.

The Production Design – Way too clean. WAY TOO CLEAN! Who in the world has lighting like these people have in their apartments? And every street in New York – would it kill someone to throw a piece of trash in the streets?

NBC – Vidar believes the network has put too much behind the show which is so obviously not going to be watched by a large enough audience to justify the cost. A broadcast network only gets the Super Bowl once every four years and “Smash” is the show you would like to launch given that enormous platform? Yikes.

Vidar admires the conjones but questions the judgment.

———————-

All that said, Vidar will watch every episode and write faithfully about them.

Vidar, not an evil God, would like this show to succeed (but knows it won’t).

Good luck “Smash.”

Vidar – The Norse God of Silence, Stealth & Revenge

P.S. – For an accurate depiction of Broadway and actors trying to make it in New York – please see “All That Jazz” and “Fame” (the first movie – not the crappy remake)

Katherine McPhee is good singing the pop stuff because that’s her voice. Thats all fine. You lose the audience when they start singing show tunes only. That’s why “glee moved to popular music and abandoned most of the theater stuff.

Glee sort of greased the wheels for a show like this to work. And made it easier to promote during football and other “manly” things. Fox has been promoting things like American Idol and Glee for years on football. It’s not much of a stretch. It will get a big viewing Monday night and then it’s all about retention. I haven’t seen it yet. I will probably wait and watch it Monday night. Looks good though.

Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you can do with a few pics to drive the message home a little bit, but other than that, this is magnificent blog. A great read. I will definitely be back.

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Lauren’s best performance.I think Haley and Lauren were the most teeantld. I don’t get why America doesn’t want a girl winner when’s they’re obviously the most teeantld (James, Casey, and Pia were awesome too)

She is unquestionably an American legend and the idol of millions of fellows around the globe.
I am a giant fan of Marilyn, too. She was the most beautiful and sexy woman who
lived on the Earth. She had so delightful smile,
and she was so sweet and attractive.

She was a symbol for many American girls which have been inspired so much by her.
Marilyn Monroehad some extraordinary capability to make delightful
influence to anyone she met in her life. Everybody was so fascinated by her
when she appeared anywhere. She got a lot of attention from her fans and lovers of
her movies. She was the real head turner. A lot of men were so unhappy that they can’t marry.
There was only one man who was happy enough to gain her heart –
President John. F. Kennedy. Marilyn had tremendous influence on him, indeed, and their relationship got
truly magnificent dimension.

They enjoyed each other so much every day and every second of their life

Marilyn starred in so many movies and a lot of beautiful
songs have been devoted to her. I am a collector of everything which is related with Marilyn.

I was interested in some truly delightful porcelain figurine of
Marilyn. I was searching over the Net pretty long time, and I found a lot of things about Marilyn Monroe.
Finally, I found the company named WEXONMART Inc., which sells truly terrific porcelain figurine of Marilyn.
So I purchased this figurine immediately. This terrific figurine
says a lot about Marilyn Monroe. She will stay in our hearts forever.

About Vidar

In Norse mythology, Vidar is the God of Silence, Stealth and Revenge and the son of Odin.
In the reborn world that arises after Ragnarok (in which Vidar kills Fenris), Vidar is preordained to rule in Odin's stead.
He now blogs about Television for Manka Bros.